Santa Barbara Area Surf Report
    
  February Overview 1999 Overview  
    
Date/Time: Saturday, February 20th, 6:00 am - 10:00 am
Location: Gaviota Coast
Weather: Slightly hazy and overcast, otherwise great, wind coming up by noon.
Conditions: Perfect sheet glass. Degraded to fair by noon.
Swell: Slow-fading WNW groundswell, 7-9 ft at 14 s from 300 deg. Southern hemi slowly dropping, not evident.
Surf: Inconsistent, 1- to 2-wave sets, overhead on the biggest of them, otherwise waist to shoulder high on the outside sets and flat in between.
Comments: Steep late takeoffs followed by a fast, fairly hollow but pinching series section that was makeable about 50/50. Made lots of late spin-and-go drops with just a hint of rail set in the water on the way down, got one excellent long ride with room for open-face turns and floaters. Otherwise spent time running for daylight and worrying about hitting rocks. A ton of waves, just me and a friend at dawn, more out when we left but still had shared our own peak with some sea lions and harbor seals for the duration.

Santa Barbara Surfing -- Last updated 2/18/1999.